The New Pet Force
by garfieldodie
Summary: Vetvix captures Abnermal and Compooky, meaning Sorceror Binky must retrieve two replacements from our universe. However, Garzooka, Odious and Starlena may not be ready for he has in mind, especially when one of them is a kid and the others a tiger... COMP
1. Chapter 1

**The New Pet Force**

**The story so far…**

There are a great many universes parallel to our own. Each of these universes is very much like ours, but each one differs in some ways. For example, in our universe Jon Arbuckle is a nice but dim-witted pet owner. In the particular parallel universe that concerns our story, Jon is a nice but dim-witted emperor. In our universe, Garfield, Odie, Nermal, and Arlene are pets, and Pooky is a teddy bear. When these five friends travel into the parallel universe ruled by Emperor Jon, they become superpowered heroes.

In each universe there is a dimensional portal, a doorway that connects one world to the other. When danger strikes in Emperor Jon's universe, the emperor summons Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene, and Pooky, who pass through the dimensional doorway from our universe into that of Emperor Jon.

In our universe, the doorway is the cover of issue #100 of the _Pet Force_ comic book. When that framed comic book cover—which hangs on the wall in Jon Arbuckle's living room—begins to glow, the doorway to the other universe opens and the pets are pulled into the cover. In Emperor Jon's universe, the doorway is a large magic cauldron that belongs to the emperor's trusted friend and adviser, Sorcerer Binky. When the five friends arrive in Emperor Jon's universe, they emerge from this magic cauldron, and they have been transformed into the superpowered heroes of Pet Force. The same thing is true in reverse: When it is time for the five to go home, they pass through the cauldron and come back out of the comic book cover into their own universe.

The five furry friends are never missed by Garfield and Odie's owner, Jon Arbuckle, while they are in Emperor Jon's universe. Because of the difference in the way time moves in the two universes, Garfield and his friends could be away having an adventure in the parallel universe for days or weeks, while only seconds pass in our universe. The fact that Jon Arbuckle's brain runs a few minutes behind the rest of the world doesn't hurt, either!

When trouble arises in Emperor Jon's universe, it usually is caused by Vetvix, an evil veterinarian. Using evil spells and dark magic, Vetvix has vowed to conquer the universe and replace good Emperor Jon as its ruler. To help achieve her goal, Vetvix has created an army of mutant animals to serve her. Through her experiments, she has turned each animal into an extra-powerful and extra-evil warrior.

Vetvix's schemes to conquer Emperor Jon's universe would succeed if it were not for the power of Pet Force—those five furry defenders of justice who have who have stopped her again and again.

After Pet Force stopped and captured a team of villains unassociated with Vetvix—the Lethal Lizards (see Book #5 for details)—Emperor Jon had sent our heroes back through the cauldron for home. However, the ship taking the Lethal Lizards went into light speed for the penal planet would be locked up. What the captain didn't know was that just as the ship went into light speed, it happened to be passing by the _Floating Fortress of Fear_, secret hideout of Vetvix. The ship created a spatial shock wave when it hit light speed. The force was like a giant wave of energy, and it collided with the _Fortress_. The huge space station rocked back and forth violently, shaking everything on board.

In her laboratory, deep in the fortress, Vetvix—whose head was attached to the body of a lizard (see Book #4 for details)—watched from her force field prison as the _Fortress _shook. Vetvix looked on wide-eyed with excitement as a large book of magical spells fell from a bookcase and landed on the control panel. The force field shut off, freeing Vetvix. She managed to herd the other animals that held her other body parts to the combination machine. Within minutes, her harms, legs, head and body were all reacquainted. Vetvix was reformed, and evil power rushed through every cell of her body again.

Once it was all said and done, she vowed revenge on Pet Force.

Currently, Garfield and the gang have remained in their own universe, and have been on their usual schedule. Garfield eaten lasagna and taken all his naps. Odie has drooled, slurped and stared at the corner everyday. Arlene has been doing nothing important except read her woman magazines. Nermal has continued to collecthis _Pet Force_comic books and annoy Garfield to a full extent, and Pooky has stayed faithfully by Garfield's side and shared his bed and food as usual. And of course Jon Arbuckle doesn't know a thing about their Pet Force adventures, and he continues to be his usual dorky self, wearing plaid shorts and floral shirts as usual, and of course, groveling fora date.

However, Garfield and Odie had just recently had an encounter with aloudmouth six year old boy with spiky hair and his best friend tiger. Garfield had manipulated the boy into taking him and Odie into a fancy resteraunt, and the four of them had held several extreme sports together in the resteraunt. However, Jon, accomanied by the boy's parents, came and busted them.However, Jon didn't hold a grudge (who was too big a whimp), especially when he believedthe boy when he saidthat he could read Garfield's mind. Sadly, his parents didn't believe him, and he was grounded. Garfield still heard from this boy and the tiger (although he didn't understand why the parents referred to the tiger as a stuffed tiger), but after they'd raided a bakery together, they got into a little bit of trouble. Thankfully, Garfield and Odie knew better than to devulge information about their Pet Force biz, mainly because this kid would have told everybody, and they'd lock him up in a mental institution.

However, all that would change in just a little while...

**Our universe, Jon Arbuckle's living room…**

Jon Arbuckle looked down at the five figures lying on the floor around him. It was no big surprise. In this house, everyone seemed to be exhausted. He didn't understand what it was with animals. They never really did anything, so what was their excuse?

"Come on, gang!" he said. "We need to get ready. We're going over to some friends of mine for dinner."

That was all it took to get Garfield standing up. He didn't care where he was. As long as it had food, he was content. He grabbed Pooky and ran around, shaking everyone.

"Come on, gang!" he said, not realizing he quoted Jon. "We're going for a ride to a friend for dinner! They might have lasagna and cookies and those little kitty treats that are shaped like running mailmen!"

However, Odie, Nermal and Arlene were way too tired to get up. They were tired from working all day. They had helped with the garden work, so they didn't want to move.

Garfield looked up at Jon, who was growing impatient.

"I'm going to get the car warmed up," he told Garfield. "Get them to at least stand up, okay?"

Garfield saluted. "It'll be a tough job, general, but I'll get these yellowbellies to get a move on."

Jon left his pets.

Garfield sighed as he returned to his friends.

"You guys are strange. Whenever I don't want to do anything, you're always hounding me to go somewhere. Whenever _I_ have enough energy to run a marathon, you three just want to make fun of me by lying around all day."

"Go away," Arlene muttered.

Garfield slapped his forehead.

"Very well. I have given you all fair warning. Now prepare to feel the razor-sharpness of my right-hand claw."

One of his powers as Garzooka was his ability to slash with his super-sharp right-hand claw. It wasn't as sharp when he was himself, but it still stung when you touched it.

He dug his claws into Odie's rump. The poor pup yelled, "YIPE!" and jumped five feet into the air, only to crash on the couch with Arlene and Nermal, who were tossed off of the couch and onto their feet.

Garfield chuckled. "Now that I have your attention, we're due to go to a friend's house for dinner with Sir Dorks-A-Lot. Come to the Royal Idiot!"

He got behind them and pushed them into the car. He hopped into the front with Pooky at his side.


	2. Chapter 2

**Emperor Jon's Universe…**

On the planet Polyester, Emperor Jon was preparing for something very important. It was something very big. Something so important that even _he_ couldn't believe he was doing it!

"I'm going to the dry cleaners!" he shouted.

Sorcerer Binky, trusted friend and wizard to the emperor, muttered, "Finally," under his breath.

Emperor Jon immediately began loading up his smelly, dirty clothes into his hovercraft. He was careful not to hit his fuzzy dice.

"See to it that I have plenty of air-fresheners," he ordered his staff.

Sorcerer Binky found himself having to help with the operation. With a clothes peg on his nose, he lifted a huge pile of socks and shirts.

"Well, at least I didn't get the underwear," he sighed.

However, not too far away from Polyester, Vetvix was hovering in a giant spacecraft. It was almost as big as Pet Force's ship, the _Lightspeed Lasagna_!

"Excellent," she grinned. "With this machine, we can wipe out any source of magic easily. Start up the machine!"

A half-lizard, half-gerbil flipped some switches and the powerful machine came on all at once.

Down on the ground, Emperor Jon and Sorcerer Binky were finishing up with the loading.

"Well, I should be off to the dry cleaners now," said the emperor.

"Don't forget anything," the sorcerer muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh, I meant to say—"

Sorcerer Binky was cut off when he was suddenly trapped in a bright blue beam of light.

"HELP!" he shouted.

"Oh, that's it," said Emperor Jon. "Help you with what?"

"Emperor Jon, I'm being sucked up by a magic sucking ray!"

It took a minute for Emperor Jon to fully understand what this meant. Then it hit him as Binky was sucked up and towards Vetvix's ship!

"Guards!" he shouted. "It's Vetvix! Stop her, but don't hurt the sorcerer."

The palace guards quickly got into the hover crafts and set off after Vetvix.

Emperor Jon ran into the palace. He had to call Pet Force right away. After all the times that Sorcerer Binky had used it, he had a pretty basic idea as to how it worked. All he had to do was get to the main throne room.

However, when he got there, he saw everything that belonged to Sorcerer Binky was being sucked up the same way Binky had been himself. Including the magic cauldron!

"Oh no!" the emperor cried. "Without that, I can't bring Pet Force here. Also, I can't make that carrot soup I was looking forward to later today for lunch. What can I do now?"

Sorcerer Binky was faring no better. He was soon brought up into the ship and brought face to face with…

"VETVIX!" he screamed in his loud voice.

Vetvix chuckled and circled the sorcerer. "Sorcerer Binky," she said softly. "We finally meet. You are the reason I can't win and take over this universe."

"What are you talkin about?" Binky demanded. "Pet Force is the one that goes up against you."

"Yes, but you are the one that brings them here," Vetvix went on. "It took me a while to finally realize it, but I finally understand it all. _You_ are the one who holds the magic to bring Pet Force into this universe. Without you, Pet Force can not come here, and nothing will stand in my way to take over the universe!"

Binky's yellow eyes went wide. That was a pretty good point.

"Now then, you shall be thrown into the dungeon at the bottom of the ship. Guards!"

Binky attempted to zap away the mutants with his magical powers, but his force field was magic-proof.

The mutants put a rope around the force field and pulled it down into the dungeon.

"With _him_ out of the way, the universe is ripe for the picking!" Vetvix cackled.

**Calvin & Hobbes' house…**

"CALVIN, GET DOWN HERE!" Mom shouted. "Our guests will be here any minute!"

Calvin sighed. He didn't like company. He especially didn't like company that was more than one. If he knew anything about company, it was a bunch of stupid sayings like "Look how tall you've gotten," and "I remember when you were just a baby." It made him feel like a zoo animal.

Hobbes crawled out from under the bed. "The hatch to the refrigerator is making some progress," he said, "but we need about three pounds of titanium alloy in order to make it so we can slide up and down without getting splinters."

Calvin groaned. "At this rate, we're probably going to bedone by next Christmas. Where are we gonna get that much metal?"

"Maybe we can get it from the junk yard. Isn't there one just a few miles from here?"

"Yeah, but Mom and Dad are so uptight they won't let go past the general store. Seriously, it's not like I'm gonna dance in traffic…again."

"Do you still have the scars?" asked Hobbes.

"Calvin, get down here!" shouted Dad.

Calvin and Hobbes slowly got up and walked downstairs. Family dinners are bad enough, but dinners with friends are different. There's usually nothing good or fun to do, and so to fight the boredom, Calvin decides it'll be fun to throw food at everyone and say that it was evil duplicate. You'd think after fifty times of doing it, he'd know better. Of course, it's all part of his elaborate scheme to get people to stop coming to their house.

"This is going to drag on for hours, most likely," Calvin decided. "I'll have to throw the green stuff at the guest's hair. That usually gets them mad."

"You are the most interesting form of entertainment I've ever seen," Hobbes sighed.

As they walked to the kitchen, they could smell Mom's terrible food brewing.

The doorbell rang.

"He's here already!" said Mom. "Calvin, get the door!"

Calvin rolled his eyes and turned the doorknob, opening the door and seeing three familiar faces.

"Mr. Arbuckle?" he asked.

"Hey, Calvin, how's it going?" Jon replied.

"Jon, how're things?" Dad asked.

"Not bad. I brought my pets and their friends over."

Mom and Dad looked down at Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene and Pooky looking up at them.

"We don't have pet food," said Mom.

"Don't worry, they rarely eat cat food and kibble. They eat whatever I give them. Or at least Garfield will."

"Well, good," Mom said. "Dinner will be ready in a minute."

Mom, Dad and Jon (notice that their names all have three letters) went into the kitchen.

Calvin and Hobbes gave Garfield a high-five.

"Hey, Garfield," said Calvin. "How's all going with you?"

"Jon took me off the diet at last," Garfield said.

"As you can see, it didn't help much," Arlene said.

"Hey, at least fat can be gotten rid of," said Garfield. "As for your teeth…"

"Can it!" Arlene shouted.

"Who's she?" asked Hobbes.

"Ah, yes," said Garfield. "Calvin and Hobbes, I'd like to introduce you to my teddy bear, Pooky, the annoying kitten, Nermal, and the beaver-faced cat, Attila the Runt."

Arlene scowled. "I'm Arlene," she icily.

Calvin rolled his eyes as he and Garfield both chimed, "Women."

Nermal looked Hobbes over. "Are you a real tiger?" he asked excitedly.

"A tried and true tiger," said Hobbes proudly. "Thank you for noticing."

"He looks like an oversized version of Garfield to me," Arlene muttered, clearly not enjoying herself.

"You have serious anger issues," said Calvin. "I can tell."

"Her standards are too high," said Garfield.

"Time for dinner!" called Mom.

"FOOD!" cried Garfield.

He shot past Calvin and Hobbes as fast as he could.

"WAIT!" Calvin cried after Garfield. "Don't do it!"

But it was too late.

Garfield ran into the kitchen and onto the table. He looked at the green glob sitting on his plate. He went pale and passed out onto the floor near Calvin's feet.

"I tried to warn you," Calvin said.

"What exactly is this?" asked Jon cautiously but politely.

"It's eggplant casserole," said Mom proudly.

One man, one child, four pets and two stuffed animals started to look sick.

"Only someone incredibly stupid could possible like this stuff," Garfield whispered to Nermal.

They both looked over at Odie and saw that he was holding his nose and growling at the stuff on his plate.

"Wow, not even _him_," Garfield said.

Mom and Dad sat down at the table. Jon and Calvin slowly sat down as well. Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene and Pooky slowly moved up took their shares.

"Is there a problem?" asked Mom, looking at Jon.

"No, no," said Jon quickly, sticking the fork into the glob. He put it in his mouth. He nearly threw up.

_This is going to be a long day,_ was what Calvin, Hobbes, Garfield, Nermal, Arlene and Jon Arbuckle were thinking.

If Odie and Pooky had brains, they'd think the same way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Emperor Jon's Universe…**

Sorcerer Binky was cold and potentially freaked out in his magic proof cell. He was trying pry the air vent off, but it was stuck on, and of course, he couldn't use his magic to unbolt it.

"Come on!" he wailed. "Emperor Jon needs me!"

It was then that something beeped in the pocket of his robe.

"Oh, that's right," he sighed. "I have a non-magic cell phone."

He took out a light red cell phone and answered.

"Sorcerer Binky here. Who's calling?"

"Sorcerer?" came the reply. "It's Emperor Jon calling."

Binky didn't know whether or not he should be feeling good right now. Emperor Jon meant well, but he sometimes was a little slow, even during crisis. No, scratch that. _Especially_ during crisis.

"Emperor!" Binky said, not too loudly. "I'm in a magic proof cell on Vetvix's ship! You must bring Pet Force here for me."

"We can't do that," Emperor Jon replied. "Vetvix captured everything you own along with you. That includes the magic cauldron. You must escape and make it to the cauldron and bring Pet Force. If you can bring them in on the ship, maybe they can take Vetvix by surprise."

Binky blinked. "Did you just come up with that idea all on your own?" he asked.

"Why, yes. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason," Binky said quickly.

"Very well. You must find out where the cauldron is. The universe is depending on you."

Binky sighed. "I have to do everything around here," he muttered. "I'll call back."

He clapped the phone shut and off, jamming it back into his pocket. He then returned his attention to the grate. If he could get into it, he could use his magic to direct him to the cauldron, and then Pet Force could stop Vetvix. However, if he can't use he magic, he's as big a wimp as Emperor Jon.

"Here goes nothing," he said.

He laced his fingers around the grate cover and pulled with all his might. Sweat trickled down his bright white face from his red, poofy hair. His hands were growing sore fast. He'd only pulled for three seconds before he gave up. There had to be a better way to do this.

He then noticed that the ground had no floor. It was just dirt.

"If only I had a spoon," he muttered.

He bent over like a dog and started to dig furiously. Dirt flew everywhere. He started to sink into the ground as he dug. He dug straight towards the wall, hoping to find a decent way out. For the most part, this was decent.

Underneath the cell, with a dirt ceiling, was a half-Chihuahua, half-ostrich. It failed to noticed that dirt was starting to rain down to him.

"This is the dumbest job ever," he mumbled. "I just stand here waiting for someone to break out of a cell. I need to have my contract renegotiated. I never do _any_thing! I mean, is there honestly anyone here who is going to try and escape?"

It was at that moment that Binky fell through the dirt ceiling, landing on top of the guard.

"Thank you for a prompt response," the guard sighed, and then he blacked out.

Binky looked down at the mutant and realized he was sitting on a mutant. It's not an easy thought, you know?

Regaining himself, Binky remember the task at hand. He slowly left the room. As he didn't know which room to go into, he turned himself into the mutant he'd just landed on. He simply walked down the corridors, passing unsuspecting minions of Vetvix.

Binky was constantly poking his Chihuahua head into the rooms, searching for his stuff. It wouldn't be for about five more floors of the ship before he finally he found the object of his desire: the cauldron!

Judging his moment, he slid into the magic room. He shut the door tight and peered into the cauldron. It was empty. In order to make Pet Force come, it had to be filled with a few specials ingredients. Basically anything would work, except cheesecake, for the obvious reason. If you don't know that reason, then you have no right to read this story.

Binky knew that Vetvix could detect magic anywhere, so he'd have to improvise. He quickly started to roll it out the door. He instantly ran into a half-turtle, half-eagle.

"Where're you taking that?" he asked in a dopey voice.

"Um, Vetvix requested that I bring it to her to be destroyed."

"Cool. Carry on."

The mutant left.

Binky felt his stomach churning. He hated looking at these guys. Hey, _you'd_ feel sick too if you saw mutants that could talk. He quickly hurried to the nearest giant restroom. He ran in and locked the door.

"I hope this is the men's room," he muttered.

He ran to a sink and started to fill the cauldron with hot water. Then he took a few packets of gum out of his pockets, dumping them into the cauldron. Then he dumped some breath mints in. Finally, he placed in a penny and made a wish.

"Let's hope this works," he muttered, changing back to himself.

He started to mix up the ingredients.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Someone's in here!" Binky shouted.

"But I gotta go!" a screechy voice said.

"I'm sorry, but I'm the type that requires all four toilets!"

"Whoa, boy. Sorry pal. Later."

The whatever-it-was left.

Binky rolled his eyes and resumed. He crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Much to his relief, he could see an image. It was a little pink from the gum, but he could make out Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene, and Pooky, not to mention Jon Arbuckle, Calvin, Hobbes and Calvin's parents.

Binky eyed Hobbes closely. "An interesting universe they live in," he commented.

Binky then pressed a few buttons on the cauldron, and the gooey water began to boil.

**Calvin & Hobbes' house…**

Dinner was moving quite slowly. Any dinner with eggplant in it will definitely move slowly.

"Can I be excused yet?" Calvin whined.

"No," Dad replied.

"Why not?"

"You didn't finish your dinner."

"That's because I'm against eating anything that was once purple," Calvin said.

Mom and Dad ignored Calvin and continued eating. Jon simply tried to stomach this food.

The only of the pets that actually touched the stuff was Arlene. She noticed how sour the others looked.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad," she said.

"You lie," Garfield snarled.

"For once, I'm with Garfield," added Nermal. "I can't possibly stomach this stuff. Besides, we're cats. It's our job to be finicky eaters."

"He's right," Garfield said. "Let's be realistic and get rid of it."

Garfield and Nermal slowly slipped their shares onto Odie's plate. Odie grunted angrily.

"Sorry, boy," Garfield said. "You need to uphold the stereotype that dogs will eat anything."

Calvin looked over at Arlene. "You don't have to be polite to my parents," he whispered. "I never am."

"That's how it works around here," added Hobbes, also slipping his food onto Odie's plate.

"Well, I could care less what _you _two do," Arlene snapped. "You two are so disgusting."

"Hey, watch it, toots," Garfield said. "They're my pals."

"Even more reason," Arlene said.

"Will you two shut up?" Nermal demanded.

A sort-of noisy argument started between the three cats.

Mom and Dad noticed.

"Calvin, what did you do to the cats?" Mom demanded.

"I didn't do anything. Arlene just has a bad attitude," Calvin said.

Suddenly, Garfield stopped and froze, just as he had Arlene in a headlock.

"I feel an adventure coming on," he said nervously.

The fat cat looked at his paws and saw that they were turning brighter.

"Oh, no," he groaned. "Not again."

It was at that instant, right when everyone was concentrating on their food, Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene, and Pooky all disappeared in a flash of light.

Calvin and Hobbes were the only ones who noticed the flash, but they didn't see their friends (and Arlene) disappear.

"What was that?" asked Hobbes.

"I dunno," Calvin replied. "Probably nothing important."

Boy, was he ever wrong!


	4. Chapter 4

**Emperor Jon's Universe, Vetvix's Ship…**

Through the magic cauldron, in a restroom on Vetvix's ship, Garzooka, Odious, Starlena, Abnermal, and Compooky appeared.

"I _knew_ it!" Garzooka cried. "Sorcerer, I can't thank you enough for pulling us away from that lady's eggplant casserole."

"All right!" cheered Abnermal. "Pet Force time!"

He fired an icy blast, which immediately froze one of the toilets.

"Shh!" Sorcerer Binky hissed. "No one can know that we're here!"

It was then that Abnermal realized what he'd frozen. "Are we in Emperor Jon's bathroom?" he asked.

"And why are we sticky?" added Garzooka.

"Negative," said Compooky, hovering overhead. "If my sensors are correct, I'd saw we're on board Vetvix's ship. And we're sticky because we just came through a cauldron filled with bubble gum."

"I'm working with limited recourses," Binky said.

"Vetvix?" asked Starlena. "I thought we took care of her."

"Apparently not," said Sorcerer Binky. "She took me and all of my belongings away from the palace, and she plans to dispose of me and the cauldron that brings you here."

"Well, what do we do?" asked Abnermal. "We can't just go out there and start beating up people."

"What are you talking about?" asked Garzooka. "That's perfect!"

"He's right," agreed the sorcerer. "That's a great plan."

"Yeah, it's hard to believe that Abnermal came up with it!"

"Thanks, I think," said Abnermal unsurely.

"Compooky," Garzooka continued, "stay near us. After the K-Niner incident, we can't take any chances."

"Agreed," said the cyber-teddy.

"Okay, are we ready to break out there?"

"Yeah, but shouldn't you yell your battle cry?" asked Starlena.

"Not a chance."

"Please?" chimed Starlena, Abnermal and Compooky.

Garzooka looked at Odious, who was giving him those classic sad dog eyes and whining.

"Oh, very well," the leader said. He cleared his throat and then yelled, "LET THE FUR FLY!"

They burst out the door, taking everyone by surprise.

"Intruders!" shouted some random guy.

"Starlena, hit it!" Garzooka shouted.

Odious, Abnermal and Sorcerer Binky covered their ears. Garzooka covered Compooky's.

Starlena used her siren song to hypnotize everyone in sight. Everyone froze in their tracks and tipped over.

"This is strangely easy," commented Abnermal.

"Well, it's about to get harder," said a voice.

Everyone turned around and saw quite the mutant. It had a lion's head, moose antlers, a tiger's body, a kangaroo's legs, a shark's mouth, bat ears, an eagle's feet, and a triceratops's tail. It was one vicious yet cleverly made creature.

"Sweet mother of holy yarn balls!" Garzooka cried.

"I'm officially weirded out," added Sorcerer Binky.

"Could we take him?" asked Starlena.

"I'll do a scan," said Compooky.

A beam of light shot out and went over the creature, angering it. It barred its shark teeth and advanced. The sharp talons shone. It hopped over them.

"Garzooka and Odious might be able to take him, provided they avoid the teeth," Compooky decided. "He's immune to Starlena's song, and he's strong enough to break out of an iceberg."

"Okay," said Garzooka. "Here's the deal. Odious and I will handle Fangs here. You three need to get to Vetvix and steer this ship back to Polyester. Sorcerer Binky, you need to get your things ready to go back to the palace."

"Right," said Binky.

"Right," said Starlena.

"Right," said Compooky.

"Right," said Abnermal.

"_Slobber_," said Odious. That was his way of agreeing.

"Break!" shouted Garzooka.

Garzooka and Odious tackled the creature as best they could. They managed to knock it to its back. Apparently they eagle feet weren't very strong.

Binky ran past and up to the next room, avoiding all the limp bodies that were going to make him throw up.

Starlena, Abnermal and Compooky hurried up the long steps. Starlena and Abnermal were taking out everyone in their path, whilst Compooky gave them directions.

"She's behind that door," Compooky whispered at last.

"I'll go in first and hypnotize her," said Starlena. "Then Abnermal, you can freeze her over. Then Compooky can steer us back home."

"Got it," said Abnermal.

"Agreed," said Compooky.

After they'd counted to three, Starlena kicked the door open, and Vetvix was instantly whirled around, definitely surprised.

"PET FORCE?" she cried. "But how—? Who—? Where did—?"

Starlena sang out, and Vetvix, along with anyone who came to her aide, was sent under a trance.

"Eat ice, Vetvix!" Abnermal shouted. He jumped past Starlena and sprayed Vetvix with an icy shower, incasing her into an ice block.

"Compooky!" Starlena ordered. "Start steering for Polyester!"

"Right."

The half-computer, half-teddy bear floated over to the coordinate controller. He let some electric cords snake out from the undercarriage and hooked on. Using he controllers, he managed to set up the correct coordinates to send them to Emperor Jon's home planet, Polyester.

"Coordinates are set," he said. "We're on our way home."

Meanwhile, Garzooka and Odious were still up against the extreme mutant. It was extremely strong. It tried to bite them with its rows of shark teeth, grab them with its talons, and smack them with the triceratops tail, spikes and all.

Garzooka slashed with his razor-sharp right-hand claw. He fired off gamma-radiated hairballs. He tried to punch the creature, but this thing was super-strong, and that was pretty strong.

Odious was basically just punching and drooling. When one's brain is so small, it's amazing how forgetful they can be.

"I don't think we're going to win this one, old pal!" Garzooka shouted.

"Arf!" replied Odious.

Garzooka arched an eyebrow. Well, technically cats don't have eyebrows, so he just looked confused.

Odious used the power he'd forgotten to use, and he shot his tongue out. It was his super-stretchy stun tongue.

Apparently Vetvix had never counted on Odious remembering he could use it.

When Odious gave the creature a good _SLURP_, the creature suffered mental meltdown, and it fell to its knees, defeated.

"Well, Odious," Garzooka said, "I bet you think you're something right now, don't you?"

Odious nodded vigorously, sending slobber everywhere.

"Well, WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE?" Garzooka demanded.

Odious simply nodded. It was rare if Odious ever had anything on his docket.

Garzooka sighed a mighty sigh. "Well, you could've used that thing sooner. Just look at us. Our uniforms are tarnished beyond belief. Come on. Let's see if the sorcerer needs any help."

The two muscle-bound heroes snuck around the corridors until they had finally located the room where Sorcerer Binky was finishing loading his stuff into a giant bundle.

"This is all your stuff?" asked Garzooka, looking at the monstrous bundle.

"I collect a lot of stuff," the sorcerer said. "You'd be amazed what I took home from sorcerery school alone."

Garzooka sighed. He grabbed onto the giant thing of stuff effortlessly, and they hurried up the stairs to the captain's quarters where everyone else was waiting.

"About time you showed up!" said Abnermal, the minute he saw the two battered heroes and the sorcerer. "Do have any idea how long we've been waiting?"

"It's been about fifteen minutes," said Garzooka.

"Well, fifteen minutes can seem an eternity when it comes to you. And by the looks of things, I'd say you didn't do too well. Now, if _I_ were in charge—"

_SPROING! SLURP! THUD!_

Odious' tongue sprang from his mouth, and it slurped Abnermal, who was knocked out and he fell on the floor.

"Oh, _now_ you use it appropriately?" Garzooka asked.

"We're approaching Polyester's atmosphere!" said Compooky.

Starlena lit up. "Maybe this is it! Maybe we'll finally turn in Vetvix!"

"Not on _my_ watch!" shouted a voice.

All of Pet Force whirled around to see a recovered lion-moose-tiger-kangaroo-shark-bat-eagle-triceratops standing at the doorway.

Abnermal stirred. "What happened?" he asked groggily.

"Wow, Odious," said Garzooka, "you need to work on your tongue."

Odious growled.

The lion-moose-kangaroo… Oh, forget it. The _creature_ instantly lunged for them. It just missed Garzooka and Abnermal, and instead attacked Compooky, who just barely got out of the way.

"RUN!" shouted Garzooka. He grabbed onto the Sorcerer's things and lugged them down the stairs for a hope of finding an exit. Odious grabbed the Sorcerer Binky and carried him down after him. Starlena followed. Abnermal took the tail, holding onto Compooky to protect him. They ran down the corridors, taking out everyone they could.

As they neared one of the doors, they discovered a familiar sound just behind it.

"Isn't that the _Lightspeed Lasagna_'s horn?" asked Garzooka.

Suddenly, the exit door was broken, and a long tube was opened. It was a long platform that was covered so that oxygen could flow through.

"It _is_ the _Lightspeed Lasagna_!" said Compooky. "But how did it get here?"

It was then the Emperor Jon entered.

"EMPEROR JON?" everyone shouted.

"Yeah, it got lonely, so I thought I'd help out," he said.

"Same ol' emperor," sighed Garzooka.

"Quick! Let's get everything into the ship."

Sorcerer Binky ran through the door and across the platform that connected with the _Lightspeed Lasagna_. Garzooka and Odious pushed and pulled the bundle o' junk across the platform, but it was difficult in such a low space.

After ten minutes, they had everything across. Starlena followed after them as fast as she could.

Compooky was the next to cross, but Abnermal was still winded from his encounter with Odious' stun-tongue.

"Abnermal, hurry up!" called Starlena.

But Abnermal couldn't hurry up. He passed out on the floor. Worried, Compooky went back to help.

"Abnermal, you need to get up!" he said frantically.

Suddenly, the giant creature approached.

"COMPOOKY! ABNERMAL!" shouted Garzooka. "YOU NEED TO HURRY!"

But it was no good. Abnermal was out, and Compooky wouldn't leave his teammate. That left them in the open, and they were instantly pulled back by the creature, therefore capturing them. Then it turned back to get the others.

"Forget about them!" said Garzooka. "We'll come back for them later."

"But we can't leave them!" said Starlena.

"Don't worry. We'll go back for Compooky later."

"Hey, they took Abnermal, too!"

"So?"

"GARZOOKA!" everyone shouted.

"Okay, fine, but we can't get either of them now," said the exasperated leader. "We'll go back for them later. Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll hold them for ransom."

"How would that be a good thing?" asked Emperor Jon.

"Well, at least they'd stay alive."

"Good point," said Binky. "Let's get back to the palace to figure this out."

They quickly sealed off the entrance, leaving the creature behind, as well as Vetvix, and, worst of all, Compooky. Oh yeah, and Abnermal was left behind too.


	5. Chapter 5

Once they were back at the palace, they immediately started to unload everything of Sorcerer Binky.

"What are we going to do?" asked Starlena.

"I don't know," said Emperor Jon.

"There's a big surprise," muttered Garzooka.

"We're going to need a plan," the emperor continued. "Abnermal and Compooky are very important to the team, and we need to find a way to get them back."

"How do we do that?" asked Sorcerer Binky. "The odds of only three member of Pet Force making it aren't very good."

"Maybe we could getthem replacements?"

Garzooka's head shot up. "Where are we going to get replacements? You said the five of us were the only one's that held traits similar to the original Pet Force."

"Actually," said Binky, "you held traits and looked a lot like the original Pet Force. Several beings in your universe hold those traits. It's just that you five had the highest amount of those abilities. We just need the next runners up to replace Abnermal and Compooky."

"Who could do that?" asked Starlena.

"Well, when we can't figure it out, we turn to the cauldron for the answers."

He lugged in the giant cauldron. He added the usual ingredients: water, carrots, radishes, sliced peaches, and the works. He tossed in a stick of gum just to be safe. After he'd mixed it all up with a giant spoon, an image started to become clear to everyone who looked in.

"I've found the next best beings!" he said.

Emperor Jon, Garzooka, Odious and Starlena peered into the cauldron. It was the same scene as before: a family sitting down to dinner. It was the same dinner that Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene and Pooky had just been pulled from. Everything was moving slowly, due to the time difference. They could see Jon Arbuckle covering his eyes as he tasted more of the food. They saw a pair of adults eating the glob. And they also saw a six year old boy with spiky hair and a red shirt and next to him was a tiger.

"It seems that the boy and the tiger would be perfect replacements to Pet Force," he said.

"Really?" asked the emperor. He had been skeptical when Sorcerer Binky had chosen Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene and Pooky to replace the original Pet Force, but this time he was a bit less hasty. "The tiger makes sense, but the boy? It's _Pet_ Force! The name wouldn't make sense with a human being in it!"

"They're the best we can do for now, Your Highness."

"Very well. Bring them here at once!"

But Starlena wasn't too afraid of being skeptical. "Oh, come on! Those two? They couldn't possibly be any good at this! The boy is an insane brat, and the tiger is a stuck up know-it-all!"

"Well, they're good enough for me," said Garzooka.

Odious barked in agreement.

"It's four against one, Starlena," said Sorcerer Binky. "It's unanimous."

Starlena groaned.

**Calvin and Hobbes' House…**

Calvin sat lazily at the table. Neither he nor Hobbes nor anyone else for that matter had notice the disappearance of the three cats, one dog and one teddy bear. He poked his food, hoping it wouldn't hurt him again.

"Can I be excused now?" he asked.

"You haven't eaten anything yet," said Mom.

"I don't want to eat it. It smells like the trash can."

Mom looked behind herself and saw an overloaded trash can.

"Dear, I thought I told you to take out the trash," she said to her husband.

Dad squirmed. "No, you didn't," he said.

"Yes, I did! You were watching _How to Build Character_."

"So _that's _how he does it!" exclaimed Calvin.

Dad rolled his eyes. "Dear, you can't talk to me while I'm watching that show," he sighed. "It's complicated."

While this was going on, Hobbes leaned over and whispered to Calvin. "Hey, where'd the animals go? The _other_ animals."

Calvin then noticed that Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene and Pooky were gone.

"Huh. That's funny," he said.

He was about to ask Jon Arbuckle where his pets were, but before he could, there was a flash of light, and Calvin and Hobbes disappeared.

Mom and Dad didn't notice because they were arguing, and Jon didn't notice because he was still covering his eyes.

**The Parallel Universe; Halfway to the Emperor's Palace…**

Calvin and Hobbes found themselves tumbling through a long tunnel filled with brilliant white light.

"What's happening?" asked Calvin.

"I don't know!" replied Hobbes. "Maybe one of us is having a dream from eating your mom's dinner. I know we both tasted it at least once."

"Maybe we're being beamed up to an alien spaceship!" Calvin said excitedly.

Calvin and Hobbes finally stopped tumbling and landed with a thud. They looked around and found themselves on a rather cold, hard linoleum floor. They look up, and they saw Emperor Jon, Sorcerer Binky, and three members of Pet Force.

"Where exactly are we?" asked Calvin.

"Yeah and when did Mr. Arbuckle get a beard and crown and flowing robes?" added Hobbes.

"And why are Garfield, Odie and Arlene suddenly looking cooler?"

Garzooka grinned smugly.

"It's a long story, Calvin," he sighed.

"How long?" asked Calvin. "We're on a schedule."

Emperor Jon stepped forward. "I am Emperor Jon," he said. "You are currently on the planet known as Polyester. I am the ruler of this universe."

Calvin looked at him in shock. "Whoa there, Mr. Arbuckle. Did Mom's eggplant casserole screw up your brain too?"

"He's being serious, Calvin," said Starlena.

"Wow, I'm impressed."

"Thank you," said the emperor. "Allow me to explain what is happening. Sit down."

Calvin and Hobbes sat down in some plastic folding chairs.

"You have come through a dimensional portal into a universe parallel to your own universe. Your friends came through the same portal earlier. When they passed through this doorway they became Pet Force, the superhero team you see before you—Garzooka, Odious, Starlena, and the other two, Abnermal and Compooky, who are not with at the moment. Each of them gained a different body and incredible super powers."

"Cool!" said Calvin and Hobbes in unison.

"As Pet Force they fight for freedom and justice. They are the brave defenders of this universe and protectors of my throne."

"Interesting," said Hobbes. "So that would make you…"

"Emperor Jon."

"Is your last name Arbuckle?" asked Calvin.

"Hey, that's a good point!" Garzooka suddenly said.

"Yes, it is, but I prefer Emperor Jon," he said. "I am the ruler of this universe, and as ruler, I welcome you."

"Um, thanks," Hobbes said unsurely.

"Now, is there anything in any of that that you didn't understand?"

"Nah, we got it," said Calvin.

"Does Jon Arbuckle know about this?" asked Hobbes.

"He did for a brief time," said Garzooka. "He only came here once, but traveling between universes caused him to forget."

"So why are we here?" Calvin went on.

"You have been brought to help Pet Force with a mission," said Emperor Jon.

"Really?" Calvin asked. "Way cool! Will we have super powers like them?"

All eyes were set on Sorcerer Binky, who apparently had forgotten about that part.

"I'm afraid not," he said. "You see, let me explain something to you. Each person or animal has a parallel being in many other universes. You two have parallel beings elsewhere in this universe. You see, Garfield and the others replaced the original Pet Force, who are no longer in this universe. But because you two have similar beings in this universe somewhere, you two stayed the same."

"So it's like you and Binky the Clown?" asked Calvin.

Binky winced. "Right."

"Well, that stinks! How can we be of any help if we don't have any powers?"

"Well, if I know Vetvix, she'll do something sooner or later, and you will obtain the abilities of Abnermal. Hobbes here will gain the abilities of Compooky."

"What can they do?" asked Hobbes.

"Abnermal has the power to freeze people in their tracks. He can extend a nuke-proof force field that can extend to protect the entire ship of Pet Force, the _Lightspeed Lasagna_."

"Cool!"

"Compooky is part-computer, part-teddy bear. He is basically the mental giant of the team."

"Can he do anything else?" Hobbes asked hopefully.

"He gets to ride in a really cool hover-craft and has a TV on his head."

"All _right_!"

"Pet Force," Emperor Jon said, "you'd best be going!"

"Right," agreed Garzooka. "We've got to save Compooky!"

There was a pause.

"Ahem!" said Starlena.

"Oh, all right. We'll save Abnermal too."

Calvin winced. "Wait, I have to become the guy no one likes? That's not cool!"

"Not all that different from real life, though," said Hobbes.

"HEY!"

They boarded the _Lightspeed Lasagna_.

Calvin and Hobbes looked all around.

"This place is so cool!" Calvin shouted.

"How many times has he said 'cool' since they got here?" Starlena asked.

"Oh, you need to lighten up," Garzooka whispered.

Hobbes looked at a control panel. He went to push a button when Garzooka zoomed to block him.

"Do _not _touch that button!"

"Why not?" asked the nervous tiger.

Calvin zipped forward. "Does it set off a giant, thermonuclear bomb that'll destroy the planet?"

"No, it turns on the folk music that Emperor Jon installed into the system. I will not allow that annoying song to enter my ears. It never leaves my mind until a giant battle."

Garzooka got behind the wheel of the ship. As they took to the skies and left Polyester, Calvin stood beside him and watched.

"This is so cool!" he said.

"Just out of curiosity, how are we going to find Abnermal and Compooky in deep space?" Hobbes asked.

"We'll just need to find Vetvix's ship. Some time ago, we set a special attachment to it. It's a special satellite that will be able to draw us closer to Vetvix."

"Cool," Calvin said again. "Say, what's a Vetvix?"

"Vetvix is an evil veterinarian who's out to steal the throne from Emperor Jon," Starlena explained. "She uses her dark magic to try and take over his universe. If she ever took over the throne, we would all become victims of her horrible plan to create a universe of mindless mutants under her absolute control. She would combine humans and animals into foul creatures who live for no other reason than to do her evil bidding. She must be stopped at all costs."

Calvin and Hobbes gave her a bewildered stare. Odious did too, but that's nothing different.

"Wow," Calvin said. "It's hard to believe that someone as snippy as you could know that!"

Garzooka and Hobbes burst out laughing as Starlena growled at him.

"I can't believe he's the one Sorcerer Binky decided to bring here," she snarled.

"Me neither!" said Garzooka through chuckles. "He's better than Abnermal! I say we just rescue Compooky and we'll have two super geniuses, and keep the kid in Abnermal's place."

"Yay!" cheered Calvin and Hobbes.

Starlena groaned. She was surrounded.

**Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear…**

When Abnermal came to, he found himself in a giant cell.

"Ooh, where am I?" he asked.

"You're with me," said a familiar voice.

Abnermal turned around and saw Compooky hovering nearby.

"Compooky?" he asked, regaining his strength. "Where are we?"

"We're being held prisoner in Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear," he explained. "You were knocked out by Odious' stun-tongue, and you ran out of energy on the way back to the _Lightspeed Lasagna_. I went back for you, and we were captured."

"Oh. What's going to happen to us?"

"Allow _me_ to tell you!" said a voice. It sounded familiar, but it also sounded stuffy.

Abnermal and Compooky looked up and saw Vetvix. She looked pretty worn out, as she had a tissue in one hand. She blew her nose and then tossed it away.

"Vetvix?" Abnermal asked. "What happened to you?"

"You happened to me. That ice encasement gave me a cold."

"I see. What are you planning to do with us?"

"I plan to drain you of your powers first thing tomorrow morning," she said evilly. "Then I shall send you back to the universe from which you came, never to return. Knowing your teammates, they'll come to rescue you. Then I'll do the same to them!"

Abnermal, now having all of his strength back, fired a blast of ice at her. Once again, she was imprisoned in another ice block. Two mutants carried her away and took to be defrosted. Two more stayed behind to guard Abnermal and Compooky.

"At least we didn't have to hear the laugh," Abnermal sighed.

"Indeed," agreed Compooky.


	6. Chapter 6

It was an incredibly long ride in the _Lightspeed Lasagna_ for Garzooka, Odious and especially Starlena. Calvin and Hobbes, however, were still amazed that all this had happened to them. Unlike when Jon Arbuckle came to this universe, they fully understood what had happened. Spacemen Spiff and Mort and traveled through things like this before. The only difference was that a comic book had brought them here rather than spending twenty years in space.

Calvin looked out into deep vast space. "We have parallel beings out here?" he asked Garzooka.

"You bet," said Garzooka, who was bored from the long night search.

Calvin pondered for a moment. "What if our parallel beings _are_ Spacemen Spiff and Mort?" he said excitedly.

Hobbes thought for a moment. "It's possible," he said. "Or maybe Stupendous Man and Tiger Lad are out there somewhere!"

"And what about Mom and Dad? They must have parallel beings out there too! I wonder if they're both just as boring."

"Well, Emperor Jon and Jon Arbuckle act the same. The only difference is one is an emperor and the other can't send the bowling ball down the right lane."

"And imagine there being more than one Susie or Moe or even _Miss Wormwood_! That'd be the ultimate evilness if I'd ever seen it."

Hobbes decided he'd search the ship some more. He'd seen the fridges (approximately fifty-two, to be exact), the huge amounts of windows, the sink, and the place that held the rations that only Emperor Jon liked. He then looked in the restroom. Not much different from a regular one. He looked in master computer room.

"Hey, Calvin! Check this out!" he called.

Calvin looked around the giant, lit-up room. There were a lot of cool computers.

"This must be the Pet Force Super-Computer," he said.

He sat down at the spinning chair.

"Spin me!" he ordered.

Hobbes pushed on the chair, sending Calvin spinning like all get out.

"WHEEEEEEE!" he cried.

"You know, it's weird," Hobbes said. "When we met Garfield and Odie, we never thought of them as superheroes from another universe."

"Emperor Jon and Sorcerer Binky said that Garfield and the others came here to replace the original Pet Force. Maybe they retired, and that's why they're coming here."

"And you know what else is weird? Pet Force is a comic book series in our universe, yet I've never seen a single issue lying around your room!"

"That's because I don't subscribe to it," Calvin replied. "I didn't think the concept was very good. But having been brought here for real kind of makes wish I could subscribe."

As he thought about the concept, he elbowed a button on the computer.

Suddenly, the screen changed.

"What'd you do?" Hobbes asked nervously.

"If it's bad, we'll just blame it on Odious," Calvin replied.

The words came up on the screen: _PET FORCE ADVENTURES_

"Hey, this is cool!" Calvin said. "We can read all about their adventures right here!"

He moved the mouse to click _OPEN FILES_.

The screen showed lists of files. They were all categorized under _Pet Force Generations_. There were only two lists. Under _Generation 2_, there were five adventures. They read about Garfield and the others coming to the universe, how Space Pie-Rat turned Garzooka evil, how Compooky saved the day during the K-Niner event, how Jon Arbuckle helped Garzooka free his teammates from Vetvix, and how they all fought against the Lethal Lizards.

"They've only had five adventures before this?" Calvin asked. "Man, how could they know how to use their powers so well after all that time?"

"Must be pretty stressful missions," Hobbes commented.

Then Calvin looked at the last adventure of the original Pet Force. It told them about how Pet Force was captured by Vetvix at last. They were trapped in a new type of metal that she'd invented. Then she removed all the powers from Pet Force with a weird gun, making them weaker until they were finally transported to a ghostly dimension, where they weren't dead, but they were unable to return to their own universe.

Calvin and Hobbes stared at that last bit of information wide-eyed.

"Man, I had a feeling Vetvix would be bad," Calvin said, "but that there is _pure_ evil!"

"I had no idea she could do magic!" Hobbes added.

"Man, it makes me wish that we could have our powers now, so that we could practice for a fight."

Just then, there was an announcement over an intercom. It was Garzooka.

"We need you two up front here for instructions," he said. "We're approaching Vetvix's his _Floating Fortress of Fear_."

Calvin and Hobbes ran to the front of the ship. They peered out at the _Fortress_.

"Wow!" said Hobbes.

And Calvin said (all together now), "Cool!"

Starlena rolled his eyes.

"Starlena, Odious and I are going into the _Fortress_," Garzooka said. "You two need to stay here."

"HEY!" Calvin said. "That's not fair!"

"No, it's smart," said Starlena. "Without powers, you'd be killed."

"Oh, yeah?" Calvin snapped. "How would _you_ know? You're—"

He was cut off when Starlena sang her siren song. Calvin and Hobbes were taken off-guard, and they both went under a trance.

"Come on, gang," Garzooka said. He led Odious and Starlena away.

Calvin and Hobbes stood for a moment, swirls going around their eyes, before they finally closed their eyes and tipped over into a deep sleep.

* * *

Once inside the _Floating Fortress_, Vetvix was preparing for her plan. She had Abnermal and Compooky trapped in a giant machine. It was similar as to what had divided them up with Odious and Starlena to make the Mutanator, but it had been changed. There was a vent on the side.

The two of them stood there, worrying about what would happen.

"What does this thing do exactly?" Abnermal asked.

"In just a few short moments," Vetvix replied, still blowing her nose and sneezing from her cold, "this machine shall drain you of your powers. They shall go out that vent right there and become common particles in the air, unable to be saved."

"You twisted fiend," Compooky said, trying to sound like Garzooka.

"Work on that impression," said Vetvix. "Don't worry, you won't feel a thing. And when it is complete, Pet Force will be a thing of the past."

"But Garzooka, Odious and Starlena will come to save us!" Abnermal shouted.

"I'm sure they will, which is why I'm prepared to land them in the same place you are now. Don't worry, though. I'll send you home tomorrow."

Only halfway away from where all this was happening, Garzooka was punching, hacking and scratching. Odious was kicking, biting and slurping. Starlena floated above them, searching for the right room. Vetvix's minions were doing their best, but they proved no match for Pet Force.

"We're almost there!" Starlena shouted. "Just a bit further."

Vetvix was just about to throw the switch when the door burst down. Everyone (well, the three of them) looked up and saw Garzooka and Odious were ready for a fight.

"Okay, Vetvix," Garzooka said. "We can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Hand over Compooky."

There was a pause.

"GARZOOKA!" everyone shouted.

"Oh, fine, and give us back Abnermal, too."

"You're a bit late," Vetvix said. "Once I've pulled this lever, Abnermal and Compooky will be completely drained of their powers, and they'll be nothing but the air you're breathing right now."

Garzooka and Starlena looked at her with sheer terror. Odious would have too if he knew what was going on.

Vetvix rolled her eyes. "I meant their powers. _They're_ going straight back to your universe, where they can't cause anymore trouble."

"Well, what makes you think we're going to let you get away with this?" Garzooka snarled.

"We'll soon find out. I already flipped the switch."

They all looked down and saw that the switch had been switched during the talking.

The machine started to hum. It was filled with a sickly green gas. Garzooka couldn't see into it. He heard Abnermal and Compooky coughing and choking furiously through it. Then he saw that another gas that was a different color than the first was coming out of the vents.

"It's working!" Vetvix cried. "Those are their powers you see coming out."

Garzooka turned to Odious and winked.

It was fortunate for them that Odious knew what that wink meant. The stun tongue sprang from his mouth and struck Vetvix, once again putting her out of commission. Boy, that dark magic of her's was pretty much failing, wasn't it?

When the gases finally dissolved, Garzooka, Odious and Starlena saw pretty much what they thought they'd see: Nermal and Pooky.

Fortunately for Garzooka, Abnermal's pester-power went into the mix, so his annoyance level went back to normal.

"Get us out of here!" Nermal shouted, banging on the glass.

Pooky did nothing. He was just an ordinary teddy bear now.

Garzooka ran up to the glass and scraped it with his claw. Then Odious gave it a good punch on the scratch, shattering it.

"There we go," Nermal said.

"Come on," said Starlena. "We need to get out of here."

Garzooka grabbed Pooky, and Odious grabbed Nermal. They ran out just as Vetvix was regaining herself. She reached for her communication device.

"Get them," she said, and then she fell asleep.

However, Pet Force (or what was left of them) was running down the corridor back to the _Lightspeed Lasagna_.

"We need to get back to the ship and get you back to Polyester," Garzooka decided.

Suddenly, something somewhat crimson colored soaring past them. It shined, and it chilled them a bit.

"Those are Abnermal and Compooky's powers!" cried Starlena. "We need to catch up with them. If we can get them in front of that stuff, maybe the powers will reenter their bodies!"

"It's just stupid enough to work," Garzooka said.

They ran as fast as they could, trying to catch up with the particles, but they weren't fast enough.

* * *

On board the _Lightspeed Lasagna_, Calvin and Hobbes were just waking up from their trance. They had no idea about what had just happened in the _Fortress_.

Calvin tried to pick up where he'd left off, still a bit groggy. "Because you're an idiot!" he shouted. "A dumb idiot!"

Hobbes thought he was talking to him, so he hit him.

"OW!" Calvin shouted. "What'd you do that for?"

"You just called me an idiot!"

"I didn't call _you_ an idiot, you idiot! I called _Starlena_ an idiot!"

It was then that they noticed Starlena wasn't there. Neither were Garzooka or Odious.

"Great!" Calvin shouted. "They bring us all the way here to help, and then they tell us to stay in the ship. You know what they are? They're action teases! They get us all fired up for a fight, and they just leave us here."

Hobbes simply nodded. He looked through the windshield. "Hey, check that out," he said.

Calvin looked out and saw a crimson-looking coming straight towards the ship.

"It looks like a comet!" he said.

"Should we move the ship?" Hobbes asked.

Calvin looked at the complicated controls before them.

"Maybe we should just run and scream."

"Agreed."

They hopped up and ran for the lives.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" they screamed.

They looked back and saw the crimson shoot straight through the windshield. The odd part? The fact that the windshield didn't shatter.

They stopped to think, but they didn't get any time. When they stopped, the crimson slammed into them, sending them hurtling into the wall, knocking them out.

"Man, rendered unconscious twice in the same day," Calvin moaned. "This has gotta be some kind of record."

The last thing either Calvin or Hobbes heard before they blacked out, they heard Garzooka shout, "Oh my gosh!"


	7. Chapter 7

Once Calvin came to, he saw that Odious was looking over him, worrying and drooling.

"Odious, get out of my face," he said, waving his hand around.

"ARF!" Odious barked happily.

"He's awake!" added Nermal, who was nearby.

Calvin looked around. He could see Pooky was sitting next to him.

"What happened to the rest of Pet Force?" he asked.

"Apparently, you've become Pet Force," said Garzooka.

Calvin arched an eyebrow. He then looked down. He did a double-take. He was wearing a dark purple jumpsuit with a yellow lightening bolt down the front, as well as a white cape, white gloves and white boots, not to mention a white string bandana.

He quickly and carefully stood up, unable to speak for a brief moment. He reached out and touched the chair with his fingers as carefully as he could, and it immediately turned to ice.

"WAHOOOOOO!" he cheered. "I'm a Pet Forcer! Yes, yes, yes, yes, _YES_!" He ran around in circles, laughing and whooping.

"It seems his pester-power has kicked in nicely," Starlena commented.

Garzooka rolled his eyes.

Calvin was finding it hard to stop himself from talking. "This has gotta be the coolest thing that's ever happened to me! I could freeze Susie in her tracks! I wouldn't have to worry about her fighting back! I could possibly be saved from Moe for good! And I think my voice is stuck. I can't stop talking."

Suddenly, he felt a surge of electricity fly through his veins.

"Ouch!" he cried.

He turned around and saw Hobbes. At least, that partly what he saw.

Hobbes still looked like himself, but he had on yellowish sunglasses, a red helmet with a red TV set on top that had a neutron symbol on the screen. But what really stood out was the fact that he was in a cool hovercraft that was blue on the sides, but with a yellow stripe down the front with a paw print on it. Two electrical wires were snaking back into the craft.

"Hello, Calvin. Feeling smarter?"

"Hobbes? How'd you get that thing on your head?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"Wait! Compooky is supposed to have super-intelligence! How could you possibly not know?"

"I don't know."

Calvin slapped his forehead, only for it freeze over.

Garzooka quickly applied a special defroster that they'd been given during their first adventure when Abnermal had frozen one thing too many.

Once his hand was freed, Calvin looked himself over in a mirror.

"Well," he said, and for the first time, he was unable to speak.

As for Hobbes, he was having troubles of his own. Despite having a super-brain now, he still didn't know how to keep his hovercraft under control. He was spinning madly like a top, and he couldn't stop until he spotted the _STOP SPINNING _button.

"I don't get it," Starlena said. "How is it that when Nermal and Pooky got those powers, they were able to handle them, but these two losers can't do much about them?"

Calvin, not letting his gaze leave the mirror, simply reached behind his head and with the point of his finger, blasted Starlena in an ice block.

Garzooka tossed Odious the defroster, who thankfully knew how to use it, and turned his attention to the stunned Calvin and the giddy Hobbes.

"Apparently, being the runner's up in this whole thing, you two aren't able to control your powers just yet," he said. "Just give it time and try not to go crazy with it, okay?"

Strangely, despite now having Abnermal's pester-power, Calvin wasn't exactly talking.

"How's it that Pooky could handle this thing and knew all the answers when _he_ got his new brain, but I can't?" Hobbes asked.

"I don't know. You're second-best to Pooky. Besides, no offense to him or anything, but he didn't necessarily have any brains to start with, so he had plenty of room. As for you, you had a brain in there, so it's probably having trouble welcoming in the new one."

Hobbes looked up at the brain that was stored in his big monitor. He looked at himself in the mirror that Calvin was still staring at.

"I look _so_ cool!" he said.

Garzooka sighed.

"What do we do now?" Calvin finally asked.

"Well, Vetvix fled the _Fortress_," Starlena said. "She left in one of her ships, so my guess is we go after her."

"Right," said Garzooka. "She could very well be waiting to drain us as well."

"Then wouldn't the smart thing be to run away?" Calvin asked.

"When you're in Pet Force, you don't run away," Garzooka said firmly.

"Feh," scoffed Starlena. "As Pet Force, sure, but back home, you run and hide when it comes to booster shot time. In fact, you won't come out of bed unless it's not Monday."

Calvin chuckled. "That's lame."

Garzooka said nothing as he sat down behind the controls. "We have to get back to Vetvix. We went aboard the ship and the machine that took Abnermal and Compooky's powers was removed and taken with her. If we're going to make things right, we need to get out there and beat her."

Calvin and Hobbes sighed and agreed.

"Still, does this mean we get new names?" Calvin asked.

"I dunno," Hobbes said. "_Comphobbes_ and _Abcalvin _don't exactly sound right."

"Yeah, well, at least it wouldn't be a like a bunch of bad puns. That's what the other names are like."

He then noticed everyone was glaring at him.

"Well, it's not like it isn't true," he said.

"Let's just keep our regular names," Hobbes said. "I prefer mine over a name with _comp_ in it any day."

Garzooka took no notice of this, as he was concentrating on catching up with Vetvix. That's why he was the only one who noticed when the communicator came on.

"Emperor Jon speaking," a familiar voice said. "Come in, Garzooka."

"Garzooka here," the Pet Force leader said.

"Have you found Abnermal and Compooky yet?" asked Emperor Jon.

Garzooka sighed. "In a way, I suppose."

"What do you mean, in a way?"

Garzooka leaned back and showed him Pooky. Nermal started jumping up and down, trying to talk to the emperor, but, lucky for Emperor Jon, he didn't speak cat, so Nermal's cries came through as a bunch of "Meow".

"What has Vetvix done?" the emperor demanded.

"She's drained Abnermal and Compooky, turning them back into their normal selves."

"Well, how do we get them back to normal?"

"I think a better question would be how we get them back to _not _normal," said a voice.

Hobbes hovered into the scene.

Emperor Jon looked at him closely. "Odd," he said. "He looks so familiar."

"I'm Hobbes, sir," said the cyber-tiger. "You remember? The handsome and already smart enough tiger from earlier?"

"It doesn't ring a bell," the emperor murmured. "I've never met anyone like that."

Calvin immediately fell to the floor laughing, holding his sides. His hands immediately froze to his ribs, and he was stuck in fetal position. Odious quickly applied the defrosting stuff.

"And who's _that_?" asked Emperor Jon, looking past Garzooka at Calvin. "And why's he wearing Abnermal's uniform?"

"Because that's Calvin, and he's got Abnermal's powers. It's the same with Hobbes."

"Hobbes has Abnermal's powers too?"

"Yes. No. _NO_!" Garzooka said, loosing patience. "Hobbes has _Compooky's _powers."

"Ah. That makes better sense."

Pet Force groaned.

"The only way we can fix this power mess is to catch up with Vetvix, who has the technology to transfer the powers back," Garzooka went on. "We need to track her down, but she destroyed the tracker on her ship."

"Don't worry. I'll get Sorcerer Binky on the job at once. Good luck, new Pet Force," he said, and he signed off.

Calvin sighed. "Well, I'm officially bored now," he said.

It was time for another long ride.


	8. Chapter 8

During the chase for Vetvix, Calvin and Hobbes were in training. While Garzooka and Starlena concentrated on the search, they had ordered Nermal to help Calvin with his freeze power. Calvin was having trouble not freezing everything he touched.

Nermal was trying to teach Calvin how to use it right.

"You have to use willpower," said Nermal, trying to keep patient. Despite being the annoying one, Calvin was something else.

"I'm trying to, but this power is too willful!"

Nermal sighed and handed him the fifty-eighth object. It was an old boot.

"Now touch this with index finger," he moaned.

Calvin tried, but the boot froze on touch.

"Darn it!" he yelled.

Nermal tossed the chilly boot away with a bunch of other objects, which were also frozen, thawing or soaked.

"This isn't gonna work!" Calvin whined. "I'll never be able to be a living-freezer."

_No kidding_, Nermal thought, but he kept it to himself.

Hobbes wasn't any better off. He had the hovercraft under control, but he wasn't able to get his super-brain working. He was still having the same thoughts at the same rate, and he couldn't figure out why.

"This stinks! I should be having highly intelligible thoughts, even more so than back home, and I'm just mediocre compared to Compooky!" he'd say.

Garzooka sat up front, also grumbling. "Ah, space," he said. "Could it possibly be any bigger? If it's gotta be unending, then what's the point in looking for something new? Why can't something new find us?"

Starlena held her ears tight, trying to down out the annoyingness.

Odious wasn't taking notice of much. He was trying to figure out who the black figure was that was either on the floor or the wall (otherwise known as his shadow).

Pooky just sat there.

"We're finally catching up with Vetvix!" Garzooka announced.

"FINALLY!" Calvin said with relief.

They all hurried to the front of the _Lightspeed Lasagna _and saw a distant planet.

Hobbes looked at it closely, and suddenly, something clicked. He found himself thinking faster than ever, and he started speaking.

"That's the lesser-known planet, _Android_," he said. "All the citizens are robots, and so they're capable of killing people, and that would include us. The atmosphere is safe for us, and the locals are friendly for the most part. We need to be super careful, though, for there could be some that are hiding Vetvix, so we need to be careful who we ask."

Everyone looked up at Hobbes, all stunned.

"How do you know all that?" asked Starlena.

"I dunno," Hobbes shrugged. "It just came to me, I suppose."

"Well, that's fine and dandy," said Calvin, "but what about me? I still can't do my freeze power yet!"

"Well," Garzooka said, "you may not need it. As long as you can still make that force-field to protect us, you're still useful."

"How do I know if it works?"

Garzooka called Odious over, who stood next to Calvin. Then he had Nermal throw a book at them. Calvin threw up the force field around himself and Odious, and it bounced off.

"I think that verifies that," decided Starlena.

"Here's the plan," said Garzooka. "When we get there, Odious, Starlena, Calvin and I will go in. Hobbes, Nermal and Pooky, you'll stay here and make sure everything stays all right in the ship in case we need to make a quick getaway."

Hobbes' face fell. "What? You mean I have to miss the action?"

"Aren't you usually the one who's afraid of getting in the wagon?" Calvin teased.

"Yes, but this time, I feel urges to pounce!"

"Compooky's job is to stay on the ship, seeing as how he's the mental giant. He always stayed on the ship during battles," explained Garzooka.

"But I'm stronger than he was!" Hobbes protested. "I mean, you should see me back home! I'm the toughest being in the neighborhood!"

"It's true, I suppose," Calvin said.

"Still, you're staying here. With your super brain, you're the only one who could get the ship going in case of an emergency," said Starlena.

Hobbes finally relented and agreed.

A few minutes later, he beeped and said, "Now entering _Android's_ atmosphere," he said.

Garzooka took the controls and they landed in a deserted area.

"Is there anyone here?" asked Nermal.

Hobbes did a scan of the planet. "Yes, but there's very little left. Apparently, there was an explosion yesterday, and some of the population was wiped out."

"What's the chance of _us_ getting blown up?" asked Starlena.

"Well, for you, Garzooka and Calvin, it looks pretty good. As for Odious…"

They all looked at Odious who was ice skating on the drool that Calvin had frozen earlier.

"Well, I'd keep an eye on him," Hobbes finished.

"We're gonna start the search now," said Garzooka. "Keep the ship handy."

Hobbes rolled his eyes while Nermal saluted.

The ship hatch opened, and Garzooka, Starlena, Odious and Calvin stepped outside.

"It smells like metal," Starlena commented.

"The planet's called _Android_, Starlena," Calvin said. "Get with it."

Starlena rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to hit him.

The four of them left the ship, and Hobbes stayed behind with Nermal and Pooky.

"It hasn't been thirty seconds yet, and already, I'm bored," Hobbes whined.

"Believe it or not, you're starting to annoy _me_!" said Nermal.

So an argument was triggered between Hobbes and Nermal while Pooky just sat there, neutral.


	9. Chapter 9

Garzooka, Odious, Starlena and Calvin snuck around the planet. They hadn't found anyone yet, but they could see the effects the explosion had had on the cities. Houses were knocked over, rivers overflowed and trees were uprooted.

"Whoa," said Calvin. "This looks so cool!"

"Calvin, people could've been killed in this!" Starlena shouted.

"Wow! It even _sounds_ cool!"

Suddenly, they heard someone shouting. "HELP! HELP!"

They all ran forward and saw that a robot was stuck in the tree branches.

"Get me down!" he shouted.

Garzooka ran forward and bent the tree down towards the ground, allowing the robot to climb down.

"Pet Force!" the robot cried. Then he spotted Calvin. "What happened to him?"

Calvin rolled his eyes and turned away.

"Never mind," said Starlena. "We need to find Vetvix to fix him. Where is she?"

"I dunno, but you might want to follow the helicopters."

"Huh?"

"There are special helicopters that are flying around the planet, keep patrol. You might like to follow them."

"Thanks," said Garzooka. "Come on."

They followed their leader down through the piles of destruction.

"There's one!" Calvin shouted.

They looked up and saw an Army Helicopter was flying over them.

"They're heading south," said Garzooka. "Let's follow it."

They all ran off in that direction.

* * *

Back on the _Lightspeed Lasagna_, Hobbes and Nermal had long since ended their argument. They were in opposite sides of the ship, grumbling.

Hobbes was still cheesed off because he'd been left behind. He felt he was just as powerful as the others and could be very helpful, but he was just being tossed into the background like a drummer.

He looked outside the ship, seeing nothing but silver bushes and trees and such. This planet was serious about its name.

Hobbes then decided that it didn't matter what Garzooka said. He wasn't the boss of him. He was going to out there and help defeat Vetvix, even if it killed him. He gulped and hoped that wouldn't be the case.

When he was sure Nermal wasn't looking, he snuck outside the ship and got away.

"Look out, Vetvix," Hobbes said to himself. "Here comes Hobbes!"

Using his new super-brain, Hobbes managed to locate Vetvix, and he set off as fast as he could.

* * *

Meanwhile, Garzooka, Odious, Starlena and Calvin had reached a huge spaceship that was parked in a clearing.

"What do we do now?" asked Calvin.

Before Garzooka could come up with an answer, Odious ran forward and knocked on the ship's door.

"Odious, get back here!" Garzooka shouted.

The door to the ship was opened, and some weird creature came forward.

"What do _you_ want?" he demanded.

Odious replied by striking him with his stun-tongue that sent him into a mental meltdown. Then his tongue hit another one, and bounced off, striking several more, knocking them all out and sending them all into a heap.

Garzooka was impressed. "He's finally learned how to use that thing right," he said.

They all ran inside and looked around. Beyond the unconscious creatures was a stairwell that ran upstairs to the next level of the ship.

"What happens now?" asked Calvin.

"You stay here and keep watch," ordered Garzooka. "We'll go look for Vetvix."

"Why can't _I _come?"

"Because—," Garzooka started, but Starlena cut him off.

"Because you're an annoying little brat who can't handle something like this and you're too dumb to survive a Vetvix attack."

"I was going to say you couldn't handle your power yet, but that works too," Garzooka decided.

Odious just stood there; unaware of what was going on.

Calvin stuck his tongue out at Starlena and turned to watch the opening of the ship.

Starlena set off in front. Garzooka shrugged and walked after. Odious shrugged too, but for a different reason.

A few minutes after they'd gone, Calvin was getting extremely bored. "Dumb Starlena. She's not fit to be a Pet Forcer. She's barely a team player, and she just insults me! I'll show her! I'll save this entire universe by myself! I'll show her!"

And with that, he turned down a hall and disappeared.

However, Calvin should've remembered that he had to keep watch, so he didn't know that someone was sneaking on board the ship.

"I've arrived," the voice whispered.

* * *

Garzooka, Odious and Starlena were walking around the ship, keeping their eyes open.

"I'm just saying," Garzooka was saying, "that you may be being a bit rough on the kid. I mean, he's six! Right, Odious?"

"Arf!"

"Well, he shouldn't be here in the first place," Starlena shot back. "He's a human, and this is _Pet_ Force, not Human and Animal Force."

"It's only temporary," Garzooka groaned. "Lighten up."

"Well let me tell _you_ something," Starlena hissed. "I don't trust this kid. I could tell something was up about him the minute I me him. People who have a tiger and spiky hair are only bad news, Garzooka, and you should know that."

"Oh, really?" said a familiar voice.

They all whirled around, but a second too late. They found that they were imprisoned in a giant Pet Force proof force field, triggered by the black magic of Vetvix.

"Vetvix, have you been standing there this whole time?" Garzooka asked.

"Oh, I stepped in on the part where you said the new addition to Pet Force was bad news," she said slyly. "So, Starlena, you think this kid is bad? Is he, maybe, evil?"

Starlena snarled at the mention of Calvin. "He's the worst thing on two legs I've ever seen, after you, of course."

"Of course," replied Vetvix, an evil grin spreading across her face. "Now then, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find this boy, and see if I can mold him into the perfect evil sidekick. Good bye."

She flicked her hair and left, her pet, Gorbull, at her side.

Garzooka slapped his forehead in disgust. "And I used to think Odious had no brains," he muttered.

Starlena rolled her eyes. "Heh, it's just as well. He was never meant to be a Pet Forcer anyway."

She then noticed that Garzooka and Odious were glaring at her, so she quickly shut up before her mouth got her into bigger trouble.

Little did they know that Calvin and Hobbes were about to prove themselves worthy to the team.


	10. Chapter 10

Calvin was wandering the corridors of the ship boldly. He was loving every second of this. Every once in a while, he'd point at something and freeze it. It was great practice, and he only froze things that belonged to Vetvix.

"So far, my training to be a Pet Forcer has been great," he said to himself. "I'll show Starlena that I _can_ be the best there is!"

Suddenly, he heard something behind him. He jumped in horror, whirled around and blasted a non-moving barrel in ice.

"Hello?" he asked nervously.

The noise came again.

"I have ice powers and I'm not afraid to use them!"

"Yes, but the question is can you use them right?" said an evil voice.

Calvin looked behind himself, but he couldn't see anyone. He spun in circles, trying to figure out who was talking.

"Who's there?" he shouted.

Suddenly, the spot before him seemed to change shape. It became…

"VETVIX!" Calvin screamed. He attempted to blast her with his ice hands, but missed and instead hit some pipes overhead.

"Ah, so you must be Calvin," she said, bending over to get a good look at him.

"What's it to ya, evil mistress?" he growled.

Vetvix ignored him. "Tell me something, Calvin. Do enjoy having superpowers?"

Calvin arched an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"That's what I thought. Now then, how would you like to use those powers for your own use, rather than to protect the universe?"

"Never!" Calvin shouted. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes to protect this universe!"

"But let's say the universe didn't need protecting," Vetvix said with a sly grin. "Would you use these powers to your advantage?"

Calvin wasn't sure where this was going. "Um, maybe?"

"Are you positive?"

"A little."

"I see. Now, do you know how you could get a life like that?"

"Where?"

Vetvix checked to make sure no one was around. "If you worked for _me_."

Calvin's eyes shot open wide. He turned and tried to run away, but Gorbull blocked him.

"What do you want from me?" Calvin demanded.

"Nothing much," Vetvix said evilly. "Just to have you on _my_ team."

Calvin tried to say no, but something within him, coupled with Vetvix's dark magic, was keeping him from doing that. His brain suddenly felt a little numb, and he kept blinking.

"Okay," he said simply.

"_Ex_cellent," cackled Vetvix.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hobbes had infiltrated the ship and was floating around, trying to find the rest of Pet Force. He was hot on their trail, and so far, he couldn't find anyone to fight.

"I need to get out of this chair," Hobbes moaned. "I'm getting leg cramps. I don't know how Compooky can stand this thing."

However, he couldn't get out of the chair until the universe was saved and the powers were returned to Nermal and Pooky, so he was in trouble.

He arrived at a weaponry closet. Hoping there was something in there that he could use, he entered.

Hobbes scanned all the guns and such, hoping to find something worthy of battling these creatures.

"There's bound to be something good in here."

As he rummaged through the stuff, he accidentally backed into the wall, or at least he thought he did. When he turned around, he saw that he'd actually backed a special containment for a rather large gun.

"This could prove productive," he said.

He then noticed the inscription on the casing. It read: _This gun is to only be used when Vetvix is mad and wants to send someone to another dimension, preferably towards a ghostly dimension where there is no escape._

Hobbes about fell over. This was the same gun that Vetvix had used to transport the original Pet Force away, and it sent a chill up his spine that he was looking at something that was a big mark in this universe's history.

"This is what is needed," he said to himself. "This _will_ prove productive!"

He pulled a laser off the nearby shelf and blasted the casing open. When the thing cooled, he pulled out the special gun.

"Oh, this shall be a night to remember," he whispered.

Quickly, he stored it in a special compartment and started out of the room.

However, something short in a weird little uniform was blocking his path.

"Calvin?"

Indeed, Calvin was looking at Hobbes with an evil look in his eyes.

"Okay, look, before you yell at me for disobeying Garzooka's orders, let me explain: I found the gun that sent the original Pet Force to the ghostly dimension. If we use this on Vetvix,_ she'll_ be sent there too, and the universe is saved!"

But Calvin didn't reply. He was glaring at Hobbes like he was about to kill him.

"Uh, Calvin, I'd like it if you'd say something in response," Hobbes said, getting worried.

"You wish to bring pain upon the all-powerful one?" Calvin asked.

"Well, that's not how I'd describe her, but I guess so, yeah."

"Then _you_ must suffer."

Hobbes' eyes snapped open. "Huh?"

Calvin snapped his fingers. In an instant, the lion-moose-tiger-kangaroo-shark-bat-eagle-triceratops jumped down from its hiding place (where that thing could hide, I don't know) and landed an inch behind him.

"Get him!" Calvin shouted.

The LMTKSBET leaned back on its hind legs, and then it leaped towards Hobbes.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" Hobbes cried.

He quickly put his hovercraft into hyper speed, and he flew off down the corridors.

"HELP!" he screamed. "Someone, help! Garzooka! Odious! Anyone but Vetvix or her minions! That should narrow the field a bit!"

The LMTKSBET was stomping after him, roaring its lion roar.

Garzooka, Odious and Starlena were still trapped in their magical prison when Hobbes slammed into it. When he collected himself, he saw the others inside.

"GUYS! You're here…in a magical prison…which is bad."

"Yeah, no kidding," snapped Starlena.

"Hey, that's my line," said Garzooka.

Just then, the creature was there. It pounced.

Hobbes ducked.

_KERASH!_

When everyone opened their eyes, they saw the creature had collapsed in a heap after crashing headfirst into the invisible force field.

"Everyone okay?" Hobbes asked.

"Well, considering the fact that we were just saved from a giant Lion/Moose/Tiger/Kangaroo/Shark/Bat/Eagle/Triceratops, I'd say I'm doing pretty good," said Garzooka.

"Bark!" said Odious.

"Good, because I've got news: Calvin's evil!"

"What else is new?" muttered Starlena.

"No, I mean he's under Vetvix's influence. He's been hanging out with the wrong crowd."

"I think we all know who's fault _that_ is," Garzooka snarled, looking at Starlena.

Starlena snorted and looked away.

"But on a positive note, I have what got rid of the original Pet Force!"

"Great!" cheered Garzooka. "Can you bring them back?"

"I'm afraid not. This thing is a transporter, not bring-baker."

"Figures."

"If we use this on Vetvix, _she'll_ be sent away, and presto! Saved universe."

"I like this!" said Garzooka. "If that's what we do, then that means no more coming back here! No more responsibility! No more Emperor Jon! No more Abnermal! Sure, the muscles are nice, but that's a small price to pay for freedom."

"Right. Plus, if we get rid of her, all her dark magic goes away. No more mutants, Calvin and I go back to normal, Abnermal and Compooky come back, and Emperor Jon is happy. Guess I'm not so useless after all, huh, Starlena?"

Starlena glared at him. "I'd like to see you get us out of here."

Hobbes typed something into the computer on his hovercraft. Numbers flashed on his monitor, which turned blue, and a bolt of electricity shot out and hit the force field, freeing the rest of Pet Force.

"Nice touch," commented Garzooka.

"There we go," said Hobbes. "Anything else you'd like? I could juggle dishes while playing bagpipes."

Odious barked happily and stretched like a normal dog would. It was good to feel free.

"Whatever," said Starlena. "Let's just go deprogram Calvin and get this over with."

She set off ahead with Odious walking directly behind her.

"She's not the easiest cat to get along with, is she?" Hobbes whispered.

"It's been twenty-five years and counting," Garzooka replied.


	11. Chapter 11

Garzooka, Odious, Starlena and Hobbes wandered through the ship.

Hobbes held the gun in his hands. His head swiped back and forth, keeping a keen eye out for Calvin and Vetvix.

"Something just occurred to me," said Hobbes. "Do we have a plan?"

"Usually we just improvise," Garzooka replied.

"Well, maybe for the sake of the story, we could come up with something."

"For once in his life, he has a point," Starlena said.

Odious barked in agreement.

Garzooka thought for a moment.

"Well, what could we possibly do?"

"Well, knowing Vetvix," Hobbes stated, "she's probably watching us right now. No doubt she already knows about the gun."

"How so?" asked Garzooka.

Hobbes pointed at a bunch of video cameras located throughout the building.

"Oh."

"She's probably prepared something sinister right now," Hobbes carried on. "So Garzooka and Odious should be on hand for battle."

Odious flexed his tongue proudly, which was actually very creepy.

"Well, now that _that's_ settled, not to mention put me off my lunch," Hobbes said, "I'll try to pinpoint Vetvix's exact location with my computer. If we find her, we'll find the machine that can transfer the powers back to Nermal and Pooky."

"Go for it," ordered Garzooka.

As Hobbes started, Starlena glared at him.

"Wait, what am _I_ supposed to do?" she demanded.

"You're going to help me take out Vetvix," Hobbes replied, his eyes not leaving the screen.

"How? She can protect herself with her magic from my siren song."

"We won't need it. At the speed we'll be going, we should be able to escape her grasp."

Everyone would have raised their eyebrows if they had any.

Hobbes sighed. "I'll explain when we get there."

Meanwhile, Vetvix was sitting in her secret lab.

"There's only one more phase to the plan," she was saying to Calvin.

"What's that, o great master?" Calvin asked, still under Vetvix's spell.

"You are to get a sample of Garzooka's DNA," she said. "I'll need it in my next dirty little trick."

"What good will it do here?"

"I am going to use that DNA sample to change my form. With Garzooka's strength, I'll be unstoppable. I will manage to boot Emperor Jon off the throne and take it as my own."

Calvin blinked in response, and then started to wander down the halls.

Vetvix chuckled evilly.

While the team was sneaking around the building, they heard footsteps approaching.

"Someone's coming!" hissed Starlena.

"No kidding?" Garzooka said sarcastically. "I could have sworn it was just the hallway singing a little ditty."

And who should step around the corner, but a gone-evil Calvin.

"Uh-oh," said Hobbes. "Keep your eyes peeled," he warned. "He might just have some sick mutant around here."

"He kind of _is_ one himself," Starlena commented.

Calvin pulled out an animal shot.

The needle gleamed.

Garzooka and Starlena screamed.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT!" Starlena shouted.

Calvin advanced.

Hobbes was confused as to why these two were suddenly a couple of… well, 'fraidy cats.

"What's up with you two?" he asked.

"It's a shot!" Garzooka shouted.

"Hold still!" Calvin yelled at Garzooka. "I must retrieve a DNA sample from you to give to Vetvix so that she can obtain super strength."

"Well, she can take it from Dumb-Dog-A-Lot over there," Garzooka shouted, pointing at Odious.

Odious, however, had yet to have seen the horror yet.

Instead, he just looked happy to see Calvin again.

So happy, in fact, that he gave him a big, wet slurp!

The slurp was set on "stun", so Calvin's brain was fried.

That meant that Vetvix's hypnosis also got fried.

Calvin stood there, a look of blank idiocy on his face.

Much like Odious, I suppose.

Once he snapped out of it, he saw the blurred images of Garzooka, Starlena, Hobbes and Odious standing before him.

"Oh, my aching head," he moaned. "What the heck happened?"

"He's free!" cheered Hobbes.

"Huh?" Calvin asked. "Hobbes? What are you doing here? And where's Vetvix?"

"I followed you here, but that's not important. Vetvix hypnotized you into working for her, and you attacked us with some gigantic creature."

"And Vetvix apparently wants some of my DNA so she can be stronger," Garzooka put in, backing away from the shot.

"Huh, Starlena was right about you and shots," Calvin sighed.

After Hobbes told him about the special gun, he thought long and hard about the situation.

"Okay, I'm getting an idea," he said. "Vetvix doesn't know that I'm free, so I can go around here no problem. Hobbes, Vetvix says she wants Garzooka's DNA, but that's not really Garzooka. It's just Garfield in someone else's body, so it's _still_ his DNA."

"True," Hobbes agreed, looking Garzooka over.

"So if we gave Vetvix _Garfield_ DNA…," Calvin pondered.

They all watched him thinking.

Calvin finally snapped his fingers.

"Okay, let's hear Hobbes' plan, and then we can merge the two together," he said excitedly.

* * *

Vetvix stood in her lab, waiting.

She was staring at a wall of security monitors, and she had just sat down to find Calvin.

She spotted him standing before Pet Force.

"Fast little thing, isn't he?" she said to herself.

Calvin was holding the needle. He pounced on top of Garzooka, who strangely fell to the floor.

Calvin held the shot over Garzooka, and then he seemed to jab it into his body.

Starlena, Odious and Hobbes seemed helpless at the sight of their fallen leader.

Right when it looked like they would do something, Calvin fired a blast of ice at them, and all three were frozen on the spot.

Calvin then removed the needle from Garzooka, and then he ran off, leaving them.

Vetvix cackled evilly.

"Everything is going to plan!" she cheered.

But suddenly, the screen went blank.

Vetvix could have cared less.

She'd seen all she'd need to see.

Or so she thought.

* * *

"…and…CUT!" shouted Hobbes.

A pair of electrodes snaked back into Hobbes' hovercraft.

"I'm having so much fun today," he chuckled.

The electrodes had short-circuited the cameras in the hall, and that had left Garzooka free to get up.

Calvin had gotten some DNA from Garzooka, but he'd gotten it by different means (I'd rather not say how). He had faked stabbing him in the chest.

Garzooka stood up and joined Hobbes and Starlena nearby.

"You know, I should go into the movies," he bragged. "Hire up some other nuts to play all your roles. Except Odie, of course, because he knows his role so well."

Starlena went over to the frozen Odious.

Hobbes had projected holograms from his craft in the spot where Calvin had fired, therefore saving himself and Starlena. As for Odious, well, he'd been frozen several times before, and they figured he'd be okay.

Starlena whipped out the defroster and melted the ice, bringing Odious back to the real world.

Well…about as close to it as they could bring him anyway.

"Well, now that _that's_ settled," said Calvin, "we now move on to Hobbes' plan. Hobbes?"

"Okay, first of all," Hobbes started, "Calvin, you go in and give her the Garfield DNA…"

And as Hobbes continued to elaborate, Pet Force grinned widely.

Even Starlena.


	12. Chapter 12

Calvin and Hobbes peeked around the corner, Odious right behind them.

"Okay, Dyno-Dumb," said Hobbes. "Get going."

Odious nodded and jumped forward. Using extra strong strength, he punched the door down to where Vetvix was hidden. Then he dashed behind corner.

Calvin jumped into place and stood there, holding his fists up.

Vetvix whirled around.

She stared at Calvin.

"Did you…?"

Calvin grinned sheepishly, yet still pretending to be under hypnosis.

"I, er, got a little thirsty on the way over," he said, holding up the shot.

Vetvix got a disgusted look on her face.

"Still, you retrieved what I asked for," she said.

Calvin handed her the shot, and hit a sneaky grin.

Not an evil grin.

No, that's Vetvix's job.

Vetvix used some dark magic to remove the DNA of the Pet Force leader, and then she inhaled the orange fumes that were floating in the air in front of her. She was enveloped by a flash of light, and then there was a snapping noise.

"It's working!" Vetvix cheered. "Once I have Garzooka's super-strength, I will be able to destroy Emperor Jon and take over the universe!"

"_So she thinks_," Calvin thought.

Calvin put a hand behind his back and gave a thumbs-up.

That was the signal.

It was that instant that Garzooka, Hobbes and Starlena burst in.

"LET THE FUR FLY!" Garzooka shouted.

Suddenly, a large object with a dog head slammed into the wall, leaving a giant impression.

"A little more to the left, Odious," said Hobbes.

Odious backed up, and then ran in next to the others, barking happily.

Vetvix was left stuttering.

"Wait, if you're all… And _he_ is… And I… Huh?"

"HA!" shouted Calvin. "FOOLED YOU!"

Vetvix growled.

"No matter," she snapped. "Fooled or not, you're going down!"

She clapped her hands together, and black smoke started to emit from them.

"That's…not a good sign," Garzooka muttered.

Vetvix made her hands into the shape of all ball, and they started to part, forming a black sphere in between her hands.

"Uh-oh," said Starlena. "She's about to practice her seven-ten split!"

Before they could get out of the way, Vetvix bowled the round object straight at them.

Garzooka, Odious, Starlena and Calvin were knocked off their feet.

"Darn it," Calvin muttered. "Aw…_DARN_ it!"

Hobbes examined Starlena.

"You know, in this kind of light, you're kind of cute!" he said.

Starlena growled at him.

Calvin then fired a blast of ice at Vetvix, but it was no use, before Vetvix had put an invisible fore-field around herself.

"Think you're so clever, kid?" she asked. "Well, try _this_ on for size!"

She fired a blast of energy at Pet Force.

Calvin reacted quickly.

He threw up his own force-field, and the energy bounced off and hit a computer, turning it into a flower.

"Huh, thank goodness that didn't hit me," Garzooka muttered. "I would have had to eat myself."

Odious punched the floorboard, and it sprung up, sending Vetvix through the air towards Garzooka.

"Ah, a nice hearty game of Villain-Ball," Garzooka said, punching her through the air.

Odious punched her back.

This went on for a while until Vetvix crashing to the floor.

Hobbes held up the gun.

"Say your prayers, Vetvix," he chuckled. "You are goin' down!"

"Oh, I don't think so," she grinned.

She snapped her fingers.

_WHUMP!_

Pet Force looked behind them.

"Oh, look who's back," Garzooka muttered.

Yeah, it was the LMTKSBET, and it had landed right behind them.

"Seriously, how do you hide that thing?" asked Hobbes.

"Seize them!" Vetvix ordered.

The giant creature proceeded in stalking for Pet Force. It had built up a lot of fury, and now the furry fighters of justice (and Calvin) couldn't fight it.

"Uh-oh," muttered Calvin.

Suddenly, right when they were about to be toast, there was a familiar horn that sounded in the air.

"Is that…?" Starlena asked.

"It couldn't be," said Garzooka.

But it was.

The _Lightspeed Lasagna_ came crashing through the ceiling, and it landed on the LMTKSBET, flattening it.

"Nice touch," said Garzooka.

The door popped open, and out tumbled Nermal, and Pooky was in his hands.

"ALL RIGHT!" he cheered.

But Vetvix didn't speak cat, so she just saw an adorable little kitten holding a teddy bear.

"Huh," she commented.

"Wow, that was perfect timing," Hobbes said to Nermal.

"Aw, shucks," Nermal smiled. "T'weren't nothin'."

Vetvix growled, but then she got a funny feeling in her stomach.

She started to glow a brilliant shade of yellow. Red swirls started to go around her.

"YES!" she crowed. "GARZOOKA'S DNA IS TAKING EFFECT!"

"What would she want with _his_ DNA?" asked Nermal.

Suddenly, Vetvix's eyes turned red, and she started to growl loudly.

"I'm achieving his super-strength!" she yelled.

Hobbes grinned smugly.

"That's not _strength_ you're feeling," he shouted.

Suddenly, Vetvix changed. She became a bit shorter, and her skin turned a faint orange color. Her body got a bit hairier. But what was really weird was her stomach, which suddenly inflated like a balloon, and she grew fatter and fatter.

"What th—! What's happening!" she shrieked.

"You wanted Garzooka DNA," said Calvin. "Sadly, though, Garzooka is no longer with us, and you got _Garfield_ DNA."

"NOOOOO!" Vetvix screamed.

Pet Force watched with much amusement as Vetvix grew larger and rounder and heavier by the second, and when she was finally finished, she was about the size of a bulldozer.

"Why…why do I suddenly hate Mondays, cute kittens, spiders and rain, and suddenly have an urge to eat lasagna?"

"Welcome to my world," said Garzooka sarcastically.

With Vetvix temporarily distracted, he walked over to her.

"Vetvix," he snarled, "you have proven to be a very worthy adversary, but the game's up, and you're down."

He pulled out the gun, and he took aim.

Vetvix scowled.

"You haven't won yet! Just watch!"

She attempted to blast him with her magic, but her arm was so heavy that she couldn't lift it.

"Darn it!" she muttered.

"Good bye, Vetvix," Garzooka growled. "And good riddance."

Everyone waved at her.

Vetvix growled.

"Oh, there's no way I'm going to the dimension like this!" she said, patting her bloated stomach. "The original Pet Force will laugh at me."

But Garzooka could've cared less.

He pulled the trigger.

A blast of crimson shot out and enveloped the whale of a veterinarian in an instant.

She screamed loudly as she started to fade away, and then she was gone.

Pet Force cheered.

"WE DID IT!" they shouted.

"We finally defeated Vetvix once and for all!" cheered Garzooka.

"We're heroes!" said Nermal.

"The universe is saved!" added Starlena.

Odious barked and pranced around happily.

Calvin and Hobbes watched the celebration.

"Well, I'd say our work here is done," Calvin said.

"Yeh," said Hobbes. "It was fun."

Suddenly, Calvin saw his hands starting to glow.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked.

Everyone looked over their shoulders.

Calvin and Hobbes were turning that same color that Vetvix had turned just a while ago.

Then Nermal and Pooky started to glow too.

All four lifted up into the air.

Garzooka, Odious and Starlena watched in awe.

Well…two out of three, anyway.

Suddenly, Calvin and Hobbes disappeared in a blast of light, and when everyone's eyesight adjusted, they found that Calvin was once again wearing his red shirt with black pants and purplish-red shoes. Hobbes was out of the hovercraft and completely naked again.

The light shifted and moved over towards Nermal and Pooky. They were enveloped in the light, and then they got their Pet Force uniforms back, and once again became Abnermal and Compooky!

The four figures landed on the floor before the other three.

"WE'RE BACK TO NORMAL!" cheered Abnermal. He started running around in circles, annoying the heck out of Garzooka, Calvin and Hobbes. "WE'RE BACK! WE'RE BACK! WE'RE BACK! WE'RE BACK! WE'RE BACK!"

"And so is his pester-power," Garzooka mumbled.

"Gee, aren't _we_ lucky," Hobbes muttered.

With a series of whistles and clicks, Compooky landed nearby Hobbes.

"I see you didn't do any damage to my craft," he said.

Hobbes yawned and went into his cat stretches.

"Oh yeah, they're fine. But I guess it'd take someone with legs as short as yours to sit in that chair for so long."

Just then, they saw several of Vetvix's cronies were starting to change.

A half-gerbil, half-gorilla changed back into a gerbil and gorilla. A half-parrot, half-turtle turned back into a parrot and a turtle. A half-hawk, half-wolf changed back into… Well, you get it.

"All of Vetvix's black magic is being erased from the universe!" said Compooky.

"Cool!" cheered Calvin.

Starlena sighed.

Calvin whipped around towards her, Hobbes right behind her.

"As for _you_, I believe you have something to say to us?"

Starlena groaned. "I'm… Well…geeze. I'm sorry."

"For?" asked Hobbes.

"For being a jerk."

"And…?" asked Calvin.

"And for not believing in you."

"And…?" asked Hobbes.

"And for calling you idiots."

"And…?" they both asked.

"And shut up, or I'll kill you both!" she shouted.

"Good enough," Calvin decided.

* * *

All over the universe, everything that had ever been altered by Vetvix's dark magic went back to its normal status.

The Lethal Lizards went back to being regular lizards.

All her mutant companions returned to regular animals.

Gorbul went back to being a gorilla and a bull dog.

But not all that happened was good.

Many miles away at the far end of the universe, an asteroid hurtled through space. And it was the one Vetvix had imprisoned her ex-sidekick, Space Pie-Rat inside it. Without Vetvix's magic to hold him there, the pirate-clad rat magically appeared on a distant planet called Glacia, which was home to Vetvix's tutor, Barfo the magic wizard, which was where he had last been.

"I'M FREE!" he cheered. "It means that Vetvix has been eliminated, and that means that _I _can take over the universe!"

Whoops.

* * *

Back at Emperor Jon's palace on Polyester, all of Pet Force, as well as Calvin and Hobbes, stood up in front of the huge crowds.

"Pet Force," Emperor Jon said, "I congratulate you all. Thanks to you, Vetvix has been gotten rid of for good, and she's not coming back."

Garzooka stepped forward modestly.

"Why thank you, Emperor Jon," he said. "It was a routine job, really."

Everyone else in Pet Force groaned and rolled their eyes.

"Of course, we couldn't have done it without Calvin and Hobbes," he added.

Calvin and Hobbes took a bow.

The crowd cheered.

"Oh, thank you, thank you," said Calvin.

"Please, stop!" Hobbes said. "You're too kind."

Emperor Jon and Sorcerer Binky stood before Pet Force.

"You did very well," said Emperor Jon. "You have finally defeated the greatest threat to this universe."

"And it only took six tries," added Sorcerer Binky.

Abnermal looked a little sad. "Is this the end of Pet Force?" he asked.

"Of course not," said Emperor Jon. "Even with Vetvix gone, there are a few more threats waiting out there somewhere. You never know who could possibly pop up around here."

"So true," said Garzooka.

"And well done to you two," said the emperor. "It was a pleasure meeting you."

"Thanks," said Calvin. "Now do we get a large cash award?"

"Or a lifetime supply of tuna?" asked Hobbes.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Well, the adventure's over," said Sorcerer Binky. "Time for you all to go home."

"But I don't wanna!" whined Calvin. "My mom's eggplant casserole is waiting there and I for one am in on mood to take _that_ on."

"Sorry, kid," said Binky. "You're going to have to go."

Calvin sighed, but decided to go along.

"Once again, Pet Force, good bye, and good luck," said Emperor Jon.

Emperor Jon and Sorcerer Binky waved good bye.

Pet Force, Calvin and Hobbes waved back.

In a flash of light, they were sucked into the magic cauldron and disappeared.

"Well, now that that's over with," said Emperor Jon, "it's time to get back to laundry day."

Sorcerer Binky sighed.

* * *

**Our universe, Calvin and Hobbes' house…**

_ZAP!_ Garfield, Odie, Arlene, Nermal, Pooky, Calvin and Hobbes were transported back to the dinner table, through the dimensional portal of _Pet Force _#100. They had each landed back in their seats.

Calvin and Hobbes were extremely confused as to what had just happened. They had a vague recollection of having just had a strange experience, but they could quite put their fingers on it. Garfield and the others had had that same feeling after _their_ first Pet Force adventure.

Calvin sifted through memories of a cool spaceship, ice, muscle-bound bodies and fat evil veterinarians.

Hobbes pondered thoughts about cool sunglasses, magic cauldrons, calculations, and talking teddy bears.

They glanced through the kitchen at the others, and saw everything was the same as before. Time had gone very slowly here.

Mom and Dad had just finished their argument, and Jon Arbuckle was just removing his hand from his face after just choking down Mom's eggplant casserole.

When they looked back at their friends (including Arlene), they saw the argument Garfield, Nermal and Arlene had been having had been resolved, and they were now continuing to dump the contents from their plates to Odie's. Odie growled at them, and then he dumped his load of garbage onto Dad's plate. Pooky just sat there.

Mom and Dad seemed to show no evidence that the whole adventure had happened.

It had been like a really fast daydream.

Calvin and Hobbes looked at each other, shrugged and resumed looking at their plates.

"Uh, Mom, I'm done. Can we go now?" Calvin asked.

Mom sighed.

"Fine, go to your room," she said.

Calvin, Hobbes, Garfield, Odie, Arlene, Nermal and Pooky left.

When Dad wasn't looking, Jon poured the contents on his plate onto his.

* * *

Later that day, they were all upstairs, reading comic books and eating Calvin's hidden stash of cookies.

Calvin and Hobbes were reading _Captain Maim_ when something stirred their memories.

They looked at the comics in their hands, and then glanced over at the animals eating cookies on the floor.

"Hmm…," Calvin pondered.

"Huh," Hobbes thought.

They looked between their comics and Garfield and the gang.

Garfield looked up and saw them looking confused.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, with a mouthful of cookies.

Calvin and Hobbes looked at each other, and then tried hard to hold in their laughter at the crazy thought that had just gone through their heads.

"Oh, nothing," said Calvin.

"Yeah, nothing at all," agreed Hobbes.

Garfield shrugged it off and stuck his head in the cookie vat, and started to gorge on some chocolate chips.


End file.
